President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 last week. Generally known as the economic stimulus law, it creates new COBRA rules intended to help those who were involuntarily terminated from employment (i.e., fired or laid off) between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 and lost their group medical plan coverage.
These individuals, [...]

The lead lifestyle story in USA Today is about the small luxuries people are using despite the sluggish and uncertain economy.  Chocolate, 99-cent music downloads, rescue dogs.  On my way to work this morning, I caught part of a segment on FM Talk 101.1 (WZTK) about what name-brand items people refused to give up, despite the [...]

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration issued a scam alert last week to small businesses, warning them not to respond to letters falsely claiming to have been sent by the SBA asking for bank account information in order to qualify them for federal tax rebates.
The fraudulent letters were sent out with what appears to [...]

Nationally, foreclosure filings increased 81 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to an article published in the (Durham, NC) Herald-Sun (registration required). Â
Local economists and the likes of Business Week and CNBC have been telling us that Durham is better positioned economically than most areas to survive the recession because our main industries are higher education and medicine.  In line with this [...]

Two million people were the victims of identity theft in 2008, an increase of 25 percent from 2007, according to a newly released survey from Javelin Strategy and Research.  Where the victim can determine how the information was stolen, eleven percent was stolen via online scams, hacking, phishing, pretexting, etc.  But half the information was [...]

Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, an honest lawyer, and an old drunk were walking along when they simultaneously spotted a hundred-dollar bill laying in the street. Who gets it?
        The old drunk, of course, the other three are mythological creatures.

One of the things I struggle with most as a lawyer is the low regard with [...]